670 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 621. 



the senate report, Professor Mayo-Smith 

 points out the important fact that it was not 

 in the real necessaries of life that the fall oc- 

 curred from 1873 to 1896. He says : 



But the different groups behave in a Very ex- 

 traordinary way. Food is at about the same 

 level as in 1860, while lumber and building ma- 

 terials have actually increased 22 per cent. The 

 manufactured articles, such as cloths and clothing 

 and house-furnishing goods show a very great 

 decrease. (Ibid., p. 205.) 



While, therefore, the cost of living was, on 

 the whole, lower in 1896 than in 1876, the 

 decrease appears to have been in the conveni- 

 ences and comforts rather than in the imme- 

 diate necessaries of life. 



For the years 1897 to the present time, we 

 are so fortunate as to have a very careful 

 and trustworthy record of prices compiled by 

 the department of commerce and labor, and 

 published in the Bulletin of the Bureau of 

 Labor, No. 63, March, 1906. This report 

 shows that a rapid and continvious advance of 

 prices has gone on since 1896. Summarizing 

 the prices quoted the Bulletin says : 



Wholesale prices, considering all commodities, 

 reached a higher point in 1905 than at any other 

 time during the sixteen years covered by this in- 

 vestigation. * * * The 1905 average, compared 

 with the year of lowest average prices during the 

 sixteen years from 1890 to 1905, in each of the 

 general groups of commodities, shows farm 

 products 58.6 per cent, higher than in 1896; food, 

 etc., 29.7 per cent, higher than in 1896; cloths 

 and clothing 22.9 per cent, higher than in 1897; 

 fuel and lighting 39.4 per cent, higher than in 

 1894; metals and implements 41.8 per cent, higher 

 than in 1898; lumber and building materials 41.4 

 per cent, higher than in 1897; drugs and chem- 

 icals 24.1 per cent, higher than in 1895; house- 

 furnishing goods 21.5 per cent, higher than in 

 1897; and the articles included in the miscel- 

 laneous group 23.4 per cent, higher than in 1896. 

 (P. 338.) 



A comparison of these authoritative state- 

 ments appears to justify the following con- 

 clusions : 



That the rise of prices since 1896 has con- 

 siderably more than offset the fall from 1873 

 to 1896; that there has been an advance of 

 at least 10 per cent, beyond the level of prices 



that prevailed in 1876, and that the prices of 

 such fundamental necessaries of life as farm 

 products and building materials are probably 

 at least 50 per cent, higher than they were in 

 1876, at which date they were, according to 

 the senate report (Part I., p. 99), at least 10 

 per cent, higher than they had been in 1860. 

 Specifically food was 9.1 per cent, higher and 

 building materials 21.7 per cent, higher. 



The important facts, then, are: (1) That 

 the present average salary paid to a Columbia 

 University professor is but one half of the 

 sum fixed as necessary thirty years ago; and 

 (2) that the cost of living has meanwhile in- 

 creased between 10 and 20 per cent. The 

 purchasing power of the average salary of 

 1906 is, therefore, hardly more than 40 per 

 cent, of the purchasing power of the salary 

 established in 1876. In other words, the great 

 and noteworthy expansion of the university, 

 which has been brought about by the labors of 

 the university teachers, has also been brought 

 about at their expense. 



Perhaps no class in the entire community 

 has suffered more from the rise in the cost 

 of living than the college and university 

 teachei*s. A recent publication by the depart- 

 ment of commerce and labor indicates that the 

 wages of manual laborers are increasing just 

 now faster than the cost of living; but with 

 the college and university teacher the reverse 

 is the case. 



The most important need to this university 

 at the present time is an addition to the en- 

 dowment fund sufficient to enable the estab- 

 lishment and maintenance of a proper stand- 

 ard of compensation to members of the teach- 

 ing staff. When the action of 1876 was taken, 

 there were but seven professors to be affected 

 by it, A very small sum of money sufficed 

 then to make a very substantial addition to 

 the salary of each. Now there are 119 pro- 

 fessors and 39 adjunct professors, 158 in all. 

 To increase the salary of each by only one 

 thousand dollars on an average — ^not at all 

 an adequate amount — would absorb the in- 

 terest at 5 per cent, on a capital sum of 

 more than three million dollars. Neverthe- 

 less, this great sum must be obtained and 

 these compensations must be fixed and paid 



